Wikipedia can be read for free by 350 million mobile phone subscribers in the developing world, its engineering chief has said - a result of partnerships with mobile phone operators which began in Malaysia in 2012.

Wikipedia Zero was inspired by Facebook Zero, an ambition by the social network to colonise new, mobile-centric audiences around the world. For Erik Möller, deputy director of parent organisation the Wikimedia Foundation, the project answers two key priorities, building new international audiences and focusing on mobile devices.

“By working with mobile operators, we can enable anyone to read and edit for free,” explained Möller, who is also vice president of engineering and product development. “We estimate that 350 million subscribers worldwide are eligible to use Wikipedia Zero.”

Wikipedia Zero allows mobile subscribers to access Wikipedia for free, with no data charges, the programme now stretches to Thailand, Saudia Arabia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India, Jordan and Bangladesh, and this year also added Kosovo, Nepal and Kyrgyzstan.

“Hundreds of millions of people are coming online using mobile phones,” Möller told the Guardian. “We must provide the best possible experience for these users, both for reading and for contributing content, to truly enable every person on the planet to share in the sum of all knowledge.”

Möller’s focus has been on solid apps for the iPhone and Android, as well as allowing contributors to edit on smartphones. “On a technical level, this also means making a platform written for the desktop web fully mobile-ready, which is a major undertaking,” he said.

Mobile use is important because it is helping to close the digital divide, especially in developing nations where mobile data connections outstrip traditional fixed line broadband connections. Even then, the cost of internet access can be prohibitive and therefore impinges on Wikimedia’s “open information for all” principle.

He singles out the complex markup and tools required to edit articles, which have a steep learning curve that can deter new users. “We’re building a new visual editing environment without markup. In terms of empowering anyone on the planet to contribute to our projects, we believe this is the single most important technical change that’s under way,” said Möller.

Number two to Lila Tretikov, newly installed executive director of Wikimedia, Möller shares Tretikov’s drive to improve Wikipedia’s technology describing it as “in some respects a website following 20th century paradigms”.

In his 13 years with Wikimedia Foundation, Möller has been instrumental in its technical developments, from the MediaWiki software that powers Wikipedia and others to Wikipedia Commons the online repository of photos, sounds and other media files used across the site.

A San Francisco-based German journalist, author and software developer with strong outspoken views on a range of topics, Möller was first an editor of Wikipedia under the pseudonym of “Eloquence”, then a developer. Wikinews, a service like Wikipedia but for short-lived news articles, was his first big contribution with high-profile roles during the reporting of the London bombings in 2005.

Later that year he was appointed Wikimedia’s chief research officer, but resigned after just three months, citing personal differences with board members.

Möller was elected to the board, and in 2006 replaced Angela Beesley - the British co-founder of Wikia alongside Jimmy Wales - before resigning in 2007 to take up the deputy director role.